The Knight Frank Rural Property and Business Update – 17 May

Last week’s Queen’s speech highlighted proposed new legislation that aims to reform the planning system and provide greater protection for the environment and the welfare of animals. While such moves are welcome, there is the sense that the government is making a lot of commitments that could be hard to deliver. It promises to take the environment into account during policy making, but at the same time says it will rural proof new policies. What happens if these two stances contradict each other?

Meanwhile, a new report from Denmark on how the country’s farmers can hit their net zero target by 2050 takes a practical and pragmatic approach to reducing carbon emissions that recognises the need for farming to remain profitable and efficient.

Please do get in touch with me or my colleagues mentioned below if you’d like to discuss any of the issues covered. We’d love to hear from you

Andrew Shirley, Head of Rural Research

In this week’s update:

• Commodity markets – Oilseed prices supported until 2022
• Queens speech 1 – Animal welfare
• Queens speech 2 – Planning
• Planning – Permitted development ruling boost
• Rural Sentiment Survey – last chance to win wine
• Overseas news – Danish ag carbon neutrality roadmap published

Commodity markets – Oilseed prices supported until 2022

Surging Chinese demand for soybeans is likely to provide support for oilseed crops until at least 2022. Import estimates for the country, which accounts for 60% of the global soybean trade, have been revised up by two million tonnes compared with April estimates. Demand for the 2020/2021 season could hit a record 102 million tonnes to help feed the nation’s pig herd, which is being rapidly rebuilt following a devastating outbreak of African Swine Fever. The May USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report was released yesterday including its first estimates for the 2021/22 marketing year. According to analysis from AHDB the figures seem to suggest further support for commodity prices.

Queens speech 1 – Animal welfare

Two bills were promised in last week’s Queen’s speech that aim to bolster the UK’s already high standards of animal welfare.

The Kept Animals Bill will likely prohibit the export of live animals for slaughter or further fattening and slaughter within six months. Farmers have argued such a move would make it harder to remain competitive.

Recognition that animals have the ability to experience feelings, including pain, lies at the heart of the Animal (Welfare) Sentience Bill, which was introduced to parliament days after the Queens speech.

Read the full transcript of the Queen’s speech

Queens speech 2 – Planning

The planning system also featured in the Queen’s speech, although much of what was promised, including a controversial zonal approach to local plan-making, was already contained in last year’s Planning White Paper, which promised serious reform of the current system.

It emphasised that the forthcoming Planning Bill will "use post-Brexit freedoms to simplify and enhance the framework for environmental assessments for developments". But Defra minister George Eustice also said the UK could go further than existing EU rules to better protect species like red squirrels and adders from development.

Mandated biodiversity net gain via the planning system will also be part of the long-awaited Environment Bill, it reiterated.

For advice on all planning matters please get in touch with Roland Brass

Planning – Permitted development ruling boost

A successful planning appeal by a Cornish farmer to allow the construction of two homes on the site of an unattractive barn could pave the way for a more flexible approach to redeveloping redundant farm buildings.

Under Class Q permitted development rights such buildings can already be converted to residential units without going through the full planning process, but the ruling offers the prospect of building new homes on the site of buildings that might not be suitable for conversion.

Rural Sentiment Survey – last chance to win wine

The next edition of The Rural Report, our annual publication for rural property owners and their clients, will be out in June. A key part of the report is the Rural Sentiment survey, which helps us to track the issues of most concern to our clients.

We’d be delighted if you’d like to take part in the survey. As a token of our appreciation all respondents will go into a draw to win a case of amazing English wine from one of our clients Sharpham Wine. The survey closes on 19 May.

Take the Survey

Overseas news – Danish ag carbon neutrality roadmap published

A new report commissioned by a Danish agriculture industry trade group provides practical examples of how the country’s farmers can become carbon neutral by 2050, while producing significantly more food. They include changing livestock diets – swapping cereal rations for fodder beets, for example, reducing nitrogen application through precision farming, and international conservation efforts in feed-producing countries.

The report suggests a decrease in meat consumption, but says cutting livestock production in Denmark would not necessarily be beneficial because it would just shift it to less sustainable systems in other parts of the world.

Please contact our carbon guru Tom Heathcote if you’d like advice on how to cut the emissions from your farm or estate

Photo by jens holm on Unsplash